Month in review for June---bot, bot, bot

6 months in, and I'm still at it.  I enjoy writing 3 lines at a time about a particular card.   It's been easy (for the most part), and I've learned a few things along the way. 

How fast has the month of June gone for me?  Well, normally I'm writing this post a day or two before the end of the month and amending a couple of details before it gets posted. 

I'm writing this post at 10:45 on the 30th of June, 75 minutes before it goes live on the blog.  To be honest, I forgot it was the 30th...

The blog also gained it's 7th follower (Billy Kingsley of Cardboard History, thank you!!)  539 page hits is also a record for the blog, unfortunately that number is somewhat tainted because a mobot.site link hit the blog quite a few times. 

I also wrote 38 posts, although 3 lines at a time wouldn't be considered writing by most.  I passed the 200 post mark as well, but there is a long way to go since I currently have over 1000 cards total for my 5 PCs. 

Some more mini marathons through the next few weeks and months will only help to create the checklists that this blog was originally created to do. 

One card at a time...

Robert

The blog keeps chugging along--May in review

I managed another month of daily posts in May.  With a couple of days that featured multiple posts, this blog's output post wise was it's highest over the first 5 months, with 37 cards posted.

I've made an effort over the past couple of days to show off a few more Jim Thome cards, so that the  amount of cards shown of both Sakic and Thome are just about even again (Sakic is ahead by just one now).   I've also made it a point to show all the various versions of a particular card (base + parallels) on the same day, so I can get them all out of the way at one time.

Not only did I have the most posts for a month, I also had the most page views, with 475 as of this writing.  The blog also gained its 6th follower (Night Owl, thank you Greg) and is being shown on a couple of more blog rolls, which I think are starting to help the numbers. 

I must also say that it's been easier to keep this blog going since I've toned down on posting on the main blog.  I didn't do that by design, it just kind of worked out that way.   I don't plan on letting the main blog go dormant; honestly it's just been more difficult to put together full length posts.

I've also had fun going through the careers of the players I collect, learning a bit about their goal/home run histories.  I really haven't added a whole lot of cards for any of my PCs over the past couple of months, and that may remain the case for the next little while until my wife and I find a home to move into. 

To those who have been reading steady, thank you!!

- Robert

Already 4 months down--April review

My how time flies.  It seems like just a couple of weeks ago I decided to start this blog, and already there's been 4 months passed by, and I've completed a post every single day but one (kind of ironic the day that I missed was tax day). That'll teach me to check the calendar before doing posts ahead of time!

The blog is still going well.  As of this writing on Saturday morning, April saw 356 page views and 33 posts, another solid month.  There were no new followers, but most of the posts are getting anywhere from 7-9 views.   To those who are taking a quick peek, thank you!

Still averaging 12-13 posts a month for the 2 main PC's of Thome and Sakic.   Both players have had over 50 cards displayed, and both have a long way to go. 

I've also obtained a nice start to an Andrew McCutchen collection, and just announced my 5th player PC on Saturday, Felix Potvin.  I've stuck with the once per week posting of Brett Lawrie.  Lawrie's collection now has 17 posts, about a third of the cards I have in my Lawrie collection.

Post #150 will come sometime during May, and I'm hoping to gain one more follower to get the blog to 5.  Most importantly, I'm still enjoying posting my PC's, one card at a time. 

thanks for reading, Robert

Still happy with how things are going (post #100)---March review

When I first started this blog at the beginning of the year, my main concern was whether I would be able to stay motivated enough to write enough to maintain a one post per day pace.

The power of scheduling posts along with enough spare time on weekend mornings has equaled 100 posts; 97 about the cards and this the 3rd of 3 monthly reviews to date.

The number of followers remained the same, 4.  No worries, because most of the posts have actually been getting more views.  Many posts over the past few weeks have anywhere from 7 to 14 views, which has been very encouraging.  As of this writing, March has seen 445 page views (including one night where I'm pretty sure a bot hit the site), by far the most productive month of the 3.

I introduced my 4th player PC this month, Andrew McCutchen.  I only have a little over 20 of his cards so far, but there's a lot out there that can be picked up for a decent price.  That fact also applies to the original 3 PCs.

A quick count of the base, parallel and insert cards of Sakic (508) and Thome (381) show that those PCs are progressing quite nicely, which means that there will be plenty of posts for quite a while.

I'm going to announce my 5th player PC sometime in April.  I'm waiting a bit in order to go through my Leafs collection to see if I have any more cards of this player, who was one of my favorites during his 8 years as a Leaf in the 90's.   This will be the last player PC that I'll add for a long time, there's just too many vintage sets I have going to keep adding more players.

- Robert

Two months in the books--February review

The first two months of the blog have come to a close, and I've managed to keep on posting at least one card a day for the entire month.  If I'm going to get a solid checklist up for myself and potential trade partners, the posting must continue.

In the month of February, I gained 3 followers to get to a grand total of 4 (thank you Tony, Raz and John).   I also appreciate Raz putting me in his blog roll, every little bit of publicity helps!

I also had 208 page views in February (up from January's 145) as of this writing, which is also encouraging.  I know that this blog isn't going to get the high follower/high traffic that the popular blogs receive, but if I can provide a bit of a distraction for a few people at one point in their busy day, all the better.  This blog is still serving my goal of creating an online checklist for my PCs so I don't have to carry around a ton of paper when I go to shows. 

This will be my 65th post, and maybe with a mini marathon or two, I'll hit 100 posts in March.

I'm also still debating on adding a 4th Player PC, there are a couple of guys who I started collections for in the past that I might start up again.  I'm just not sure if I want to add a 3rd baseball player, or a 2nd hockey player.

Either way, it's more writing material....

- Robert

So far so good--January review

I've tried hard to make sure that I'm ahead of the game when it comes to this blog.  While the main blog is seeing more posts, my main goal here is to make sure that there is a post every day.  This shouldn't be difficult because it doesn't take long to scan a card and write 3-4 lines about the card/player.

As of this writing, I had gained one follower (thank you Chris) and 150 page views.   No worries though, because my main goal here is to keep the blog going and develop a player checklist online for my Player PCs.

33 posts so far, featuring 15 Sakic, 14 Thome and 4 Lawrie cards.  I'm going to try and do a marathon or two in the next couple of months to get some more cards (and hopefully exposure) out there.  I have also dedicated Thursdays to Brett Lawrie, largely because I don't have a great deal of his cards as of yet, and putting him in a 3 day rotation with the other two players would exhaust what I have of his a lot quicker.

Also a quick shout out to Dime Box Nick for adding this blog to his blog roll.   Thank you Nick!

Finally, once I complete one or two vintage sets in the near future, I'm hoping to add another player PC or two to my collection.   I have gravitated towards my player collections over the past few months as they seem to be easier to chase than vintage sets.

The only time you'll see more than one card on a post on this blog will be the monthly reviews.   Maybe someone will see something they like, or they don't like, and provide a suggestion or comment my way.

Thanks for reading!   Robert